manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day; and seemed
disposed to breed in my outlet; but were frightened and persecuted
by idle boys, who would never let them be at rest.

Three gross-beaks (loxia coccothraustes) appeared some years ago
in my fields, in the winter; one of which I shot: since that, now and
then one is occasionally seen in the same dead season.

A cross-bill (loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in this
neighbourhood.

Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of the
village, yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's thumb (gobius
fluviatilis capitatus), the trout (trutta fluviatilis), the eel (anguilla),
the lampern (lampaetra parka et fluviatilis), and the stickle-back
(pisciculus aculeatus).

We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many from a great
river, and therefore see but little of sea-birds. As to wild fowls, we
have a few teams of ducks bred in the moors where the snipes
breed; and multitudes of widgeons and teals in hard weather
frequent our lakes in the forest.

Having some acquaintance with a tame brown owl, I find that it
casts up the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in pellets, after
the manner of hawks: when full, like a dog, it hides what it cannot
eat.

The young of the barn-owl are not easily raised, as they want a
constant supply of fresh mice: whereas the young of the brown owl